


What Comes Next

by meridian_rose (meridianrose)



Category: Wynonna Earp (TV)
Genre: Angst and Humor, Community: trope_bingo, Demonic Possession, F/F, F/M, Gen, Happy Ending, Mild Hurt/Comfort, Nicole is essential, Post-Season/Series 01, Trope Bingo Round 8, sure to be jossed by canon
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-05-08
Updated: 2017-05-08
Packaged: 2018-10-29 13:27:34
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,904
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/10854936
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/meridianrose/pseuds/meridian_rose
Summary: Wynonna was cursed, like all the Earp heirs, but it was those around her who kept paying the price.Set directly after the end of the season finale. With Waverly possessed and Doc hurt, Wynonna finds herself leaning on Nicole as they try to save their loved ones.





	What Comes Next

The shot rang out. Wynonna was on the floor, the wind knocked out of her. Her shoulder was jarred from the fall and she was dizzy, ears ringing, legs pinned. As the world righted herself, she tried to do the same but she was stuck beneath Doc. He was sprawled on top of her trapping her hips and thighs beneath his weight.

"Waverly." It was her sister's name that came to Wynonna's lips first. Waverly who had been pointed the gun, fired it. Wynonna looked over and Waverley merely tipped her head in recognition

"Waverly," Wynonna said again.

"Did I miss? Well that just means we have so much more fun to look forward to." Waverly tapped the gun against her cheek. She laughed and the sound was inhuman, chilling Wynonna to the bone.

Waverly – or something that looked like Waverly, and Wynonna would figure out which if it killed her – turned on her heel and walked away, snow crunching beneath her boots.

"Doc." Now Wynonna turned her attention to her fallen comrade. The idiot had grabbed at her when the gun went off, his damn lightning reflexes outstripping even her super-powered ones. He didn't move.

Wynonna braced her hands against the cold ground, lifted her knees, struggling to get herself to an upright position. With great effort she slid from beneath Doc's body – don't think body, Earp, dammit – and quickly scrambled onto her knees. She rolled Doc over onto his back.

Shit. Shit. Shit.

Immortal but not if he got hit by a train, wasn't that what he'd said? Or a bullet.

Blood stained his blue shirt. With shaking hands, Wynonna pressed her fingers to his neck, almost collapsing with relief to feel a faint pulse. She fumbled in her pocket for her phone. She caressed Doc's cheek with her free hand as she called for help.

"Hold on," she said. "You survived a goddamn century down a well. You are Doc fucking Holliday and you will survive this." As pep talks went, it was never going to be included in a book of inspirational quotations but she rather thought Doc would have approved if he'd been concious.

 

*

Wynonna had never been so glad to lay eyes on Nicole, who arrived as the ambulance was preparing to leave.

"Wynonna. What happened?" Nicole jogged over and was about as surprised to find Wynonna throw her arms around her as Wynonna was to find herself doing it. "Hey. It's okay. Tell me what happened."

Wynonna stepped back, tried to tidy her hair, blinking away tears that threatened to rob her of the strength she needed. "Waverly," she said, hating the tremble in her voice. "Waverly shot Doc."

"What?"

"I know," Wynonna said before Nicole could go into full denial. "We were taking a walk and then Waverly turned on us. She said, she said, um, 'Are you ready', and I guess that's when she pulled out the gun. She said 'Let's begin', or something like that. And fired. And Doc must've knocked me over, took the bullet." Wynonna stopped for a much needed breath.

Nicole reached out and put a steadying hand on Wynonna's shoulder.

"I don't know how serious it is, but it looked pretty bad to me," Wynonna said and the sympathy on Nicole's face touched her. Nicole was an incredible woman and it was no wonder that Waverly loved her. Right now however it was making it hard for Wynonna to keep it together. She wished Nicole would be harsher with her, like Dolls would be. It would keep her focussed, do what needed to be done.

Dolls, imprisoned. Willa, dead. Doc, injured. Waverly – God only knew. Wynonna was cursed, like all the Earp heirs, but it was those around her who kept paying the price.

"Waverly," Nicole said and there was a touch of steel beneath the words and Wynonna responded to it, feeling her natural instinct to rebel against authority kick in. Atta girl, Nicole. "Where is Waverly now?"

"She walked away. She laughed and I swear it was the most evil thing I ever heard." Wynonna stared into Nicole's eyes, making sure the other woman understood the seriousness of the situation. "I don't know if it was even her, or something that looked like her. It's like she's been transformed…I guess maybe something has possessed her?" Shit, this was why she needed Dolls around to figure these things out.

"Possessed?"

Wynonna nodded grimly. "She pulled the trigger and laughed and she walked away. She said something about fun. I'll show that thing fun." Peacemaker was in her hand before she was conscious of drawing it.

Nicole eyed the gun. "We will find Waverly," she said. "And if she is possessed we will fix that. I'll track down an exorcist or something. And if it isn't Waverly then you can kill it and we will find the real Waverly."

Bless you, Nicole. Her desire to protect Waverly rivalled Wynonna's own. She would not have to do this all alone.

"But first," and Nicole looked Wynonna up and down, "let's get you cleaned up. You're not hurt, are you?"

Wynonna stared dumbly at the blood on her clothes and hands. Once help was on its way she'd done her best to stem the bleeding, horrified that she couldn't stop it and paradoxically grateful at the sight because the dead didn't bleed.

"I'm okay," she said and sure, she wasn't shot, but in every other way it was a lie, but Nicole understand that and she nodded, and led Wynonna to the squad car as if taking care of your maybe-possessed girlfriend's crazy demon-hunting sister was all in a day's work.

*

Nicole dropped Wynonna off at home. Wynonna stripped off her clothes, tossing them to the floor on her way to the bathroom where she took a scalding hot shower. She crouched beneath the spray, sobbing and letting the water wash her tears away.

When she'd grieved enough she climbed out, towelled herself off roughly, and pulled on fresh clothes. She took a swig of whisky and then Nicole was there.

"I've got a few books and papers from the office," she said. "You can look at them in the car. There's a BOLO out on Waverly, we'll find her, I promise. Come on. I'm taking you to the hospital so we can find out how Doc is."

Wynonna nodded. Nicole had things in hand. One step at a time.

She skimmed through the articles as Nicole drove, disobeying the speed limits but refusing to use her siren. Possessions, shape-shifters, all sorts of weird shit that Dolls would know more about.

"If it is Waverly," Wynonna said, "and she was just fine one minute and evil the next, so I'm leaning towards possession, then we can't hurt her."

Nicole gave her a look. "Of course not."

"I don't know anything about exorcism except I think it involves projectile vomiting and that we need a priest."

Nicole shrugged, pulled up and turned off the engine. "If I have to kidnap a bishop I'll do it."

Wynonna mustered up a smile. "You really love her, don't you?"

"Yes," Nicole said. "I really do."

*

The doctor was over-worked and puzzled and, given everything that had happened recently in this town - the mass poisoning and the airborne cure sprayed over the town by a military aircraft was the cherry on the bizarre cake - ready to write the whole thing off as Purgatory style weirdness.

"Through and through," Nicole said as she led Wynonna to Doc's room. "That was lucky, I guess, because they didn't have to dig the bullet out. And already healing up. How exactly does his immortality work?"

"I don't know. I'm not sure he knows himself."

Nicole marched into the room. "Is that true, Doc?"

Doc did not look like someone who'd been shot a couple of hours ago, sitting up, awake and alert. Aside from the IV line and the hospital gown he looked his usual self, though the lack of his hat still always seemed odd to Wynonna. A gentleman took off his boots but sometimes she asked him to leave the hat on…

So not the time to think about sex.

Wynonna wasn't sure how she ended up hugging him but she was clearly doing it and he was holding her close which was nice, so she wasn't too concerned.

"My immortality is indeed a mystery in many respects," he allowed. "It seems that as the bullet wound was not immediately fatal I shall continue to be a thorn in your side, Wynonna."

"Don't say that," she scolded. She let go of him, stood back, arms akimbo. "We have to save Waverly from whatever's happened to her."

He nodded. "If you'll convince them to give me my clothing back we can leave right now."

"They probably cut your shirt off," Wynonna said, wincing at the memory of the blood.

"If you're sure you're up to it, I'll have someone come and discharge you," Nicole said. "I have a clean t-shirt in the trunk of my car. One of Dolls', I picked it up from the office when I went to find some research on possession. Should do for now."

She gave Wynonna the car keys and headed off to find the doctor again.

"She's amazing," Wynonna said. "I see why Waverly loves her. Wait here and no, don't touch that! Let the doctor remove it!"

Doc stopped fiddling with his IV line and sat back, chastened.

"We'll get you out of here," Wynonna said. "And then we are going to find Waverly and fix this damn mess."

*

Finding Waverly was proving more difficult than anticipated. Nicole took to driving around the outskirts of Purgatory because doing something was better than doing nothing.

Doc, who'd struggled a little to reach the car, had perked up considerably since then as whatever magic kept him ageless continued to heal him. He was skimming the books Nicole had selected.

Wynonna couldn't focus on the research. She stared out of the window, desperate to find her sister. They could worry about how to fix her once she was found and secured.

Nicole swung the car around and headed back towards town. At the moment Waverly stepped out from behind a tree, right in front of them, forcing Nicole to slam on the brakes.

They all piled out of the car. Waverly stared at them.

"Are we going to play some more?"

"You need to come home with us, baby girl," Wynonna urged, edging towards her. "It's been a long day."

There was no sign of a weapon but that didn't mean Waverly was not dangerous.

"Maybe I don't want to go home."

"Then we'll go to Shorty's. Grab a drink or three. Are you hungry? We could get pizza. Doughnuts. Whatever you want." Wynonna was so close to her and yet still so far away.

Waverly shook her head. "I want to have fun."

"What kind of fun?"

"I want to watch you suffer," Waverly breathed. "I want to watch you die!"

"Wynonna!" Doc had his gun out and Wynonna stepped in front of Waverly.

Let her be killed but spare Waverly.

"Why?" Wynonna asked. "Why, baby girl?"

"Stop calling me that!" Waverly scowled.

"I love you Waverly," Wynonna said. If Waverly was still in there maybe she could fight off whatever was possessing her. "Please, come home with me."

Waverly hesitated, confusion on her face.

"Waverly, we need you," Doc called from behind them. "Wynonna needs you."

There was a crunch of footsteps on snow somewhere. Wynonna couldn't take her focus from Waverly. Waverly's attention flickered between Wynonna and Doc.

"Waverly, please," Wynonna said and reached out to touch Waverly's shoulder.

Waverly gave a screech, eyes black, lips drawn back into a horrifying grimace. It was all Wynonna could do to hold her ground.

Then Waverly fell to the floor. Behind her, Nicole holstered her Taser and took out her handcuffs.

"Let's put her in the car," Nicole said.

*

Waverly was handcuffed to a chair at the office, legs as well as arms restrained.

"Please let me go," she wept.

Wynonna shook her head. "I don't know who or what you are but until you're gone from Waverly, she stays right here."

Waverly gave a snarl and her eyes were black again. "You will never defeat me. This vessel is mine now!"

Wynonna walked away to where Doc and Nicole were poring over the books again. It might be they had to rescue Dolls before they could save Waverly. Wynonna intended to rescue him in any case but she'd barely had time to breathe the last few days let alone plan on breaking into a secure facility and breaking Dolls out.

"It seems to depend on how she was altered in the first place," Nicole said, rubbing at her eyes. "Any ideas?"

Which was how Doc and Wynonna ended up back at the crime scene. Wynonna tried to avoid looking at the blood and focussed on finding anything unusual. If there was anything to find. If it hadn't been lost in the aftermath of the shooting.

She stopped, crouched down. A shiny patch of something black. Oil? She reached out.

Doc's hand shot out like a viper and grabbed her wrist. "I wouldn't touch that," he said and she realised he was right. There was something wrong here, a tiny alarm bell sounding at the back of her mind now that she was paying attention to her surroundings and not allowing herself to be drawn in by the evil.

"We should take a sample," Wynonna said because that's what they did in all those cop shows, right? And then some brilliant lab tech would find out what it meant and solve the crime and the credits would roll right on time.

They really needed a lab tech.

Wynonna didn't have a test tube but she did have an empty bottle of whisky in her trunk, and a rusty screwdriver. Pulling on her leather gloves she crouched down once more and scraped a bit of the sticky black gunk into the bottle. As evidence it would never stand up in court but she figured it would be enough for them to work with for their supernatural purposes.

*

Nicole promised to have someone analyse the sample, call in some favours if necessary to get it done and soon.

In the meantime they had a new lead and Wynonna hunted for any mention of black gunk, black goo, creepy liquids, possession by goo, and anything else she could think of.

She was about to suggest driving out to the salt flats to ask the Stone Witch for help, and trying to think of ways to persuade Doc that this would be necessary, when something caught her eye.

"Oh, wait." She jabbed a finger at one page of a huge and very dull looking book. "There's a puddle of something in this illustration. Ink, or oil. Black goo. The book says it's some sort of ectoplasm and it can seep into human skin – ewww – and the demon or spirit which left the ectoplasm behind can possess the human."

Doc came to see just as Nicole returned.

"How do you get rid of it?" Nicole asked when Wynonna repeated her discovery.

Wynonna frowned as she read from the book. "A fermentation of Hordeum vulgare, Humulus lupulus, Saccharomyces cerevisiae, and Aqua with the addition of Artemisia dracunculus and Verbena…"

Nicole typed the ingredients into google. "Barley. Hops. Yeast…wait is this beer?"

"Fermentation," Doc agreed. "Sounds like beer to me."

"With tarragon and vervain," Nicole added.

"I'll get a beer," Wynonna said. It seemed too simple. A blessed beer would have felt more appropriate but at least there'd be no kidnapping of clergymen this way.

"I'll go to the store and get the herbs," Nicole said.

Doc stayed to keep an eye on Waverly.

One beer with some crushed up tarragon and vervain led to some suitable projectile vomiting which included a sticky black substance that was going to be collected up as carefully as if it were radioactive and incinerated.

Waverly was cured.

Doc was doing fine.

Willa was still dead and that was not going to change.

And Dolls was still imprisoned. That was the next item on Wynonna's list of crap that she was dealing with aside from the revenants, the only thing left she could fix.

Tomorrow they'd talk about saving him. Right now they were all exhausted. It was time to go home. There was food and drink and showers in their futures.

*

Wynonna hugged her sister good night. "I love you, baby girl."

"I love you too."

"Nicole," Wynonna called as Waverly and Nicole headed off to bed. "Thank you. For everything you did today."

Nicole nodded. "We're in this together," she said before Waverly took her hand and pulled her out of the room.

Wynonna took another slug of whisky, slid onto Doc's lap as he sat by the fireside, and let herself take a moment to breathe.

"I almost lost you both today," Wynonna said.

"But you didn't."

"We need to save Dolls."

Doc nodded. "We will."

"Damn right we will."

We. It was difficult, being the heir. But she didn't have to do it alone. Waverly, Doc, and Nicole who'd been a tower of strength today. They'd rescue Dolls and with all of them working together they'd end the curse.

**Author's Note:**

> For the trope bingo prompt "transformations"
> 
> Doc's shoulder wound didn't heal up immediately in canon but that was the result of the injury to Constance, who hadn't healed herself; in the absence of more exact details I've used his supernatural immortality for my own purposes here.


End file.
